Legal Guides For Creatives: Copyright Law

1. Introduction: My name is Tiffany, and I am a creative business owner as well as an attorney Through my company, Straightened Berg, I worked with other creative business owners and small business owners to help them navigate the world of business law without the overwhelming confusion. As an entrepreneur, especially as a creative entrepreneur, you're constantly dealing with the intellectual property of other people, whether you're putting someone else's photo on blawg or using someone song your YouTube video. But you're also putting your own work out into the world, and you want to be able to protect those assets because that's what they are. Those are your assets. Think about any entrepreneur that goes on shark tank. One of the first questions are always asked is whether they own the intellectual property rights to the product. Usually it's whether or not they hold a patent. And if you ever want to sell your business or bring on investors, but not you have your assets protected is going to be a major selling or sticking point when it comes to the negotiations. So, yeah, being able to shut down illegal counterfeits of reproductions of your work is pretty satisfying, but it goes beyond that. When you're protected, you're helping to create brand loyalty and customer recognition. And with that, you can start charging the big bucks. In this course, we're gonna cover everything you need to know to understand copyright law. First, we're gonna break down the difference between copyright law and other forms of intellectual property protection that you learn what copyright is the three things you need to qualify for copyright protection and what can be copyrighted. After that, we'll discuss the rights you are given as a copyright owner how long your copyright lasts and then we'll dive in deeper on how your employment status can affect whether or not you own the copyright to work that you created next to talk about the copyright notice. What is it? What does it give you and why use it? I want to talk about whether or not you want you or me to register your copyright with the copyright office. And then in the final lesson, I'm gonna give you, of course, my hot tips on best practices for using copyright law for a class project. I want to go through the process of analyzing one of your works for copyright protection If you don't have one in her own words, ready and prepared, I want you to kind of imagine what? What? You come up with something. I want you to give it a title. I want you to imagine what it is. It a song? Is it a book? Is it a translation of something? And I want you to actually take these concepts that were going through, and I want you to actually visualize it in regard to that work. This is gonna help. Kind of put these concepts into a more tangible warm, and then at the end, you will be ready to actually go and register it online. If you want to continue or if you don't want to actually write a straight, at least you'll have the knowledge to do it in future. So just a quick disclaimer before we begin. As you know, I have mentioned before. If you've watched our other courses that even though I am an attorney, I am not your attorney. So I'm going to be providing you with some educational materials and some tips and tricks when it comes to copyright law. But that does not mean that I am giving you legal advice. So remember that best practice is to actually have an attorney that you can consult with in your state that could help answer questions for you and process. So now that we got that part of the way we can dive and to our course. So when the first lesson we're going to talk about copyright and how it is different from other types of intellectual property. 2. Distinguishing Types of IP Protection: So first, let's do a general overview of what intellectual property is and the different types of protection you can receive. So intellectual property is sometimes referred to as I P. So if I call something, I p know that I'm talking about intellectual property. Most people have a vague understanding of intellectual property rights, or at least they know that that kind of protection exists. But there's a lot of confusion between the different types of protections the specific benefits of attaining those protections and how to actually gain those protections in the first place. So in order to help you see the big picture first, I want to break down the different types of I P protections so you can see how they all fit together. Then, in the next lesson will begin our discussion on copyright law, specifically so copyright. What does it protect? Copyright protects the particular way an idea is expressed in a tangible medium. Example if it's painted on canvas or written down trademark protect words symbols for sounds that identify or distinguish one company's products from another. So from these, you can kind of picture the Nike swish symbol, which we have a strong affiliation in our minds with Nike when we see that symbol, the other example here is think about the color of brown and ups wears on their uniforms and other trucks. We are very clear on what we see that we know that that belongs to UPS. When we talk about Patton's, people generally think about utility patents, which protect new and useful inventions. A designer patent is another kind of patent, and this protects the appearance or unique design of a manufacturer product. So this is the usefulness in a utility patent versus the ornamental design. In a design pattern trade. Secret protection extends to confidential information held by a company, and these are things that help them to compete in the marketplace So you can think of a top secret recipe or a client list. As you can see in our comparison chart, there are different kinds of protections, and they all protect different things. For instance, one comparing copyright and trademark law. No, that copyright law protects the actual expression of an idea that is fixed in a tangible form, like a painting on a canvas or the recording of a song, whereas trademark protection covers an actual phrase or symbol that distinguishes a particular company. Trademarks are mostly concerned with consumer confusion in the marketplace. For instance, if FedEx drivers started driving brown trucks and wearing brown uniforms, they would probably be a lot of consumer confusion, whereas a floral company using a brown truck and it and brown uniforms probably wouldn't cause too much confusion. As both of these companies exist in very different industries with patents, the protections geared more towards inventions, whether they are a useful invention for a utility patent or the design of the manufacture product for a design patent. For the most part, people generally think of utility patents when they think about patent protection, which will cover things like a new machine or a new process. We're doing something. Hat protection is very complex, and it's very expensive. So this isn't something that you're going to take a course on. It just d I Y it. This is the area where you definitely need to hire a patent attorney and be prepared to spend some big bucks on it now. Trade secret protection is a little bit more of a protection that comes into play when other types of protections aren't available, so trade secrets protect businesses confidential information that helps them compete in the marketplace in some way. So the thought is that if these secrets are exposed to competitors, those companies secrets lose value or become completely useless. So when it comes to trade secrets, this is kind of something that's gonna protect secrets that are held in a company that are beneficial to that company. Like if you think about the Bates being, whatever that base being company is, that has the different, um, blend of spices or whatever it is, and they're like it's the coveted family recipe. If that recipe got out into the public, then that company is done for right. That's the whole thing. So cheap trade secrets are going to protect the confidential nature of that that can also apply something like a company's database or their client list. So now they have a good lay of the land. As far as the different types of intellectual property protection, I want to dive into what you came here for, which is copyright law, so I'll see you in the next lesson, 3. Qualifying For Copyright Protection: Okay, I so welcome back. So let's start with the basics. What is a coffee? Right. So copyright protection is actually rooted in the United States Constitution. Now, before you freak out and turn this off, we're not gonna go into a history lesson. I just wanted to give you the basics of where this is all coming from. In order to qualify for copyright protection, the work has to be three things. It has to be one original to creative and three fixed. So let's talk about what these actually mean. For the work to be original, it just means that it has to have been created. In other words, it can't have been copied exits. The second thing is creativity. This means that there has to have been some sort of creativity involved. How much creativity? Not much, to be honest, but there just has to have been some sort of creativity, this last element of it being fixed. This means that it has to be tangible. It has to be fixed in some form. So if it's a song has to have been written or recorded. If it's a painting and has to actually have been painted on campus. So, no, you're not entitled to copyright protection to that brilliant song you wrote in your head last week. So here's the actual definition. The work is considered sufficiently fixed if it's sufficiently permanent or stable to permit it to be perceived, we produced or otherwise communicated for a period of more than transitory duration. So the good news is, copyright protection is pretty easy to obtain. There are pretty minimal requirements to the double good news for you is that unlike patents where you have to actually register it to get those protections, covering protection exists the moment that the item is fixed in a tangible form. So the moment you snapped that photo the moment you painted onto a canvas the moment you write that book, you have a copyright in that work. Now there are additional copyright protections. In addition, now there are additional levels of protection that we're gonna talk about later. But just so you know, you do own the copyright the moment it is fixed. So you probably on a bunch of copyrights at this point. In the next lesson, we're going to discuss what types of works can actually be entitled to copyright protection 4. What Can Be Copyrighted: Okay, Welcome back. As I spoke about in the last section. In order to be entitled to copyright protection, the work has toe have some originality and some creativity. So let's talk about exactly what that means. Okay, First off, you can't copyright facts. There's gonna be some issues there with creativity and originality. So let's look at an example. Let's say you wanted to create some sort of directory for your local area for all the creative businesses now, just writing down the names of those businesses isn't necessarily creative in any sort of way. Those are facts. You can't just have a copyright on that. But let's say you wanted to organize it in a specific way, like prices from the cheapest stores to the most expensive. Or you wanted to arrange it by some sort of geographical mapping that some sort of creativity being involved, and that's gonna create something original that would probably be entitled to copyright protection. You also cannot copyright ideas. So like we spoke about, you can't just have an idea in your mind. It has to be fixed in a tangible expression. So what The coffee right covers is the actual piece it's actually that form of expression. Here's an example. Let's say you write a book about how to make a pinhole camera. The idea of making a pinhole camera isn't going to be protected by copyright, but the way you have fixed that information can be protected, meaning I could also write a book about making a pinhole camera. But I can't copy one of your chapters word for word and claim copyright protection. So here's another example. I am teaching this course on copyright in a video format. Now I don't own the copyright on copyright law, right? Those are facts, those air statues. But I do own a copyright over this video form. So if somebody wanted to take this video and put it on their website and sell it, I could sue for copyright infringement because that is protected. The underlying facts, the actual copyright laws are not protected under copyright. So I just wanted to show you a list of the types of works that could get copyright protection. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some of the things that could be covered, so anything from graphic design works are musical recordings, movies characters, books, software, architectural drawings, Web pages, instruction, manual sales presentations. Those are all going to be open to copyright protection in most cases, as long as all the other factors are satisfied. In the next section, we're gonna talk about sticks. You'll see what I mean. I'll see you over there. 5. Your Rights As Copyright Owner: Welcome back. I'm glad you showed up for our discussion about sticks. So let's see what I'm talking about, What we're actually talking about here are what are the rights that are given to you as a copyright holder? Copyright law grants you six exclusive rights to the use and distribution of your copyrighted work. Now these are sometimes referred to as a bundle of rights. But to help us kind of visualize it a little bit better, I want to call it a bundle of sticks. So let's talk about it in that way. As a coffee right holder, you have the right to reproduce the work, create derivative works based on the work, distribute copies of the work, performed the work publicly, display the work and, in the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of digital audio transmission. So here's a little breakdown. The right to reproduce the work gives the copyright holder the ability to make copies of the work and control anyone else making copies of it. This one is the basis for most infringement suits, so be careful here. This is the kind of thing where you right click save someone's photo or you make a digital copy of a printed text. The right to create derivative works is referring to the right to make adaptations based on a copyrighted work. This includes things like translation of a book or the sequel to a movie. The copyright owner has the ability to control the transformation of the work into new works. The distribution right is exactly what it sounds like. The copyright owner has the right to control how their work gets distributed to others. This involves sales leasing, rentals of the work. This means the owner can restrict unauthorized distribution of authorised copies as well as distribution of unauthorized copies, which are infringing works. Distributing someone's work includes things like putting someone's music and your YouTube video and posting it. The public's performance right is again pretty straightforward. As a copyright holder, you have the right to control how your work gets performed publicly. For these purposes, public means one performed in a place open to the public. Two performed at a place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of family and its social acquaintances are gathered or three. It's transmitted to multiple locations Similarly, the public display of work right controls how work such as a photograph or graphic design is displayed publicly rather than performed. This extends to posting someone else's article to your Web page or displaying a single image from a movie. The performance by digital transmission right is like a limited public performance, right that applies only to performance of a work by means of a digital audio transmission. The right only applies to sound recordings. It gives the owner the right to license or sound recording or things like streaming services. Now the reason we're visualising them as sticks is that as a copyright holder, I want you to imagine that you're holding this bundle of sticks, and each one of those sticks is a different right. One of the benefits of holding these rights as a copyright holder is that you can transfer , assign each of those rights to someone else. Now, if you transfer one of those rights to someone, it doesn't mean you're no longer holding a copyright. It just means you've given away or transferred. He wouldn't give it away, but given those to someone else to use for some purpose, Okay, let's go back to, for example, about the book on how to create a pinhole camera. Now let's that he wrote that book in English, and you wanna have it translated into Swedish. But the problem is, you don't speak Swedish, so what you could do is transfer or a sign one of those sticks in particular. We're looking at the right to make derivative works so you would transfer that right to a company that could translate that book into Swedish and create a new book. So basically, you're giving the right to create a derivative work to that company. It doesn't mean you can't still sell your book in English or make a movie out of it or make a song based on it that is still your right. As a copyright owner, it helps to see it this way because even though you're transferring to stick to someone else, it doesn't lessen the amount of sticks you have. Yes, it does. That's a lie. This is why it's nice to visualize it as a bunch of sticks. Just because you give one of those sticks away, it doesn't mean that you're not still holding the other group of sticks you still have those other rights so you can hold on to that bundle for yourself. Or you could transfer them to other people so you could end up transferring out different rights to different people. OK, here's my first hot tip. When you think about these rights, I want you to remember that they don't stand alone. And what I mean by this is that somebody could infringe on your work. And it could end up infringing on one or more of your rights so they don't all stand alone . Let's look at an example of what I mean. Let's say you have a block and you go on someone else's blood and you, right click save their photo and you put it on your blood and you hit published. You have infringed upon two of the rights of that copyright owner. You have not only reproduce the work, you have also distributed that work, and those are infringements. So that person could come after you for infringing on two rights, not just one in the next section. We're going to talk about the duration of copyright lasts 6. Copyright Duration: when it comes to how long a copyright lasts. We've actually gone through a lot of changes through the years, and this might actually have a lot to do with Mickey Mouse. So it seems like whenever the Mickey Mouse copyright is getting close to expiring, that the copyright laws get extended in some sort of way. So it seems to be like Maybe those are related. The last of these extensions happened in 1998 and that is where we currently stand on our copyright laws. So here is the law, as it's written now in regard. Teoh Copyright duration as a general rule for works created after January 1st 1978. Copyright protection lasts for the life of the author, plus an additional 70 years for an anonymous work or suit on Nana Miss work. I can't say that word, but basically it work. Published under a pseudonym or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication, or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires First, we'll talk more about corporate works later But as it stands now on, individual copyright is protected for the life of the author, plus an additional 70 years. Now. If you create the work with somebody else and it's registered to two authors, it will be the life of the last living author, plus 70 years from that date in the next section, we're gonna talk about the work that you create that would generally be entitled to copyright protection. But instead of you owning that copyright, it belongs to someone else. So let's talk about that situation. 7. Who Owns the Copyright: as we discussed. Generally, if you create a work that's entitled to copyright protection, you will own the copyright to that work. But what happens if you create that work as an employee for a company? Or what if somebody commissions you to create a work for them? Who owns the copyright in those situations? Well, these might fall under the doctrine of works made for higher. So let's talk about works for hire. This doctrine says that the actual creator of the work has no copyright rights in the work , but instead they get the compensation the hiring party gives them, such as a salary. There are two different types of works made for higher one works prepared by employees within the scope of their employment and to certain works prepared by non employees that are especially ordered or commissioned under circumstances that we'll discuss momentarily. So for the first type, this doctor says that if you create something for an employer under the scope of your employment, that work belongs to your employer, not you. So the first thing the court is gonna have to do is determine whether or not you are an employee of that company, and to do that, the court has been away a bunch of factors. Here are some examples of the factors at the way Does the employer have the right to control the means under which your work is completed? Do they provide the tools that are required to accomplish the work, or do you provide those tools? Is the work part of the employers regular business? How are you classified in your employment contract? If you've watched my legal guys for creatives understanding contracts, Course you know how important it is to actually have something in writing when it comes to your employment for someone else, Here's another really good reason. Toe. Have your employment relationship clearly defined in writing. If you want to learn more about using contracts and understanding contracts and protecting your business, be sure to go over and watch our legal guys for creatives Understanding Contracts course. We also have another course called Legal Guys for creatives reading contract that explains exactly how to read and understand a contract. If you are found to be an employee of the company, the next in the court is going to do is to figure out whether that work you created was actually within the scope of your employment with that company. So again, the court is going away. Some factors. So here are some of the factors they might way is the work of the kind the employee was employed to perform. Does it occur primarily within work hours and at the workplace? Is it performed, at least in part, to serve the employer? So let's look at an actual real world example. An organization commissioned a sculptor to create a sculpture for them, and there's a dispute as to who owns the copyright to the sculpture. The court considered that the sculptor used his own tools and worked in its own studio. This was a short project and the only one he had done for the organization. In addition, you have full control over who he hired to assist him and what he was going to pay them. So after weighing all these factors, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that it was not a work for hire, and the copyright belonged to the sculptor, which meant he could reproduce the sculpture as he wished. If you are found to be an employee and the work is within the scope of your employment. Generally, you are not gonna own the copyright that copyright is going to be owned by your employer. However, if the work that the employees created is not within that scope of employment, they're probably going to own that copyright. That is, unless there is some agreement between the employer employee that says something different . Now let's look at the second situation where your commission to create a work for someone. In this case, the work and Onley be a work for hire if one both parties signed a work for hire agreement and to the work is one of the nine types of works specified. And here are the nine types of work that are actually specified in the statute contribution to a collective work like a magazine, part of a motion picture or audio visual work. A translation supplementary works like four words maps, charts, etcetera, a compilation instructional text, a test answer material for a test or an atlas. If you're found to be an independent contractor and you have a work made for hire agreement in writing, you will on that copyright, not the person who commissioned you create the work. Okay, here's another hot tip. Computer software is generally considered to be a literary works for copyright purposes, and it is entitled to copyright protection. Now notice that it is not one of those nine things listed, so this poses a potential problem. Remember, a work made for hire has a different copyright term from a non work for hire. Also, let's say the software creator ends up holding the copyright. That means they can do whatever they want with those rights, including licensing or selling them. And that doesn't exclude licensing or selling to one of your direct competitors. So it is especially crucial in a software creation situation that you have any independent Contractors sign a contract stating that they will assign the rights to any works they produce during their service, and the copyrights related there, too. In practice, you're generally going to see this provision in any independent contractor contract because the employer wants to make sure they're protected no matter how it ends up being held in court. Later. Next, we're gonna discuss the copyright symbol and whether you need to actually write a Studer copyright and what the benefits are of registering your copyright 8. What's the Deal with Registration: Okay, guys, let's talk levels of copyright protection, as we discussed. You are the copyright owner as soon as your work is fixed in a tangible form. So what is the deal with the copyright symbol and registration and all those other things? The way I want you to think about this is in different levels of copyright protection. So kind of like a hierarchy. Maybe so. Let's see what I mean by that. Let's start with what we know. One. Your work is in a fixed form. You are the copyright owner. You are entitled to all the rights that come with copyright ownership. Great. Now let's talk about the copyright notice. The copyright notice is made up of three different parts. There's the sea in a circle symbol or the word copyright, or the abbreviation for copyright or both, plus the year of first publication, plus the name of the copyright owner. As of March 1st 1989 you don't need a copyright notice in order to be protected, so why do you want to include one? There's a couple of reasons. For one. It puts others unnoticed that this work is protected and hopefully will protect that infringement from happening in the first place. Another reason is that if someone infringes on your work, you have to sue them in order to enforce your rights. And this could be a really expensive process. So to make it worth your time, you want to recover as much damages as possible. Now, the only way to do this is to prove that their infringement was willful. And the only way to show that it was willful is by showing that the infringer knew it was protected by copyright and chose to infringe upon it anyway. And the only way you can prove this is by having a copyright notice on your work. Okay, so the next level here is registration. Now, keep in mind you don't have to register your copyright in order to use that copyright notice on your work. Because remember, you have that copy right protection as soon as you fix that work into a tangible form. So now let's see why it's actually in your benefit to register your work with the Copyright office in Washington, D. C. Now, in order to bring an infringement suit in the U. S, you have to have registered your copyright in a timely fashion or before the infringement occurred. Now, if you're thinking you're gonna wait until infringement actually occurs before he register your work and sue, you might want to rethink that. First of all, when it comes time to file suit, you're gonna want to have it done as quick as possible. And in order to do that, you're gonna have to expedite your registration, which cost you more money. But even more important, if you timely register, which needs before the infringement occurs, or within three months of publication of the work, you get the right to receive statutory damages and possibly even attorney's fees and court costs if you are successful in your infringement suit. So to understand this, let's take a look at the different types of damages that could be available to you in your impression suit. First, we have actual damages. These are the actual amount of losses the copyright owner lost due to the infringement, plus any profits the infringer received. This is generally what someone would be awarded in court. Now that all sounds great, But like we spoke about before, infringement suits are pricey and the actual amount and French earned or you lost might not be that much. So here's an example. Let's say you publish a murder mystery novel and you discover that someone has made a translation in German and it's selling copies. Not cool, right? So let's say you pay $10,000 to bring suit against them for infringement and you receive actual damages. If they've made $5000 selling their version, that's a $5000 that you were entitled to that you lost. Those are also your actual damages. Now I'm not good at math, but spending $10,000 to recover 5000 doesn't really seem worth it to me. Now let's take a look at statutory damages. Remember, these are the damages you can sue for if you timely registered your copyright. Statutory damages are special damages that you can elect to sue for instead of actual damages and their damages up to $150,000 plus attorney fees and court costs. The amount actually awarded will depend on the nature of the infringement. Again, this has to do with willfulness. The more deliberate and harmful, the more you can recover. Looking back in our example. If you end up suing the infringer for statutory damages, even if you only got that $5000 that you lost due to their infringement, you could additionally recover the $10,000 in attorney's fees, which would bring your recovery to $15,000 which makes it much more worth your while That option isn't available to you. If you haven't timely registered in the next section, I want to touch upon how toe actually register your copyright. So we're gonna talk about the process itself, so I will see you over there in the next lesson. 9. How to Register Your Copyright: Now that you know all the benefits of registering your copyright, I wanted to touch on how the process actually works. When we say registration, we're talking about registering your work with the Copyright Office, which is located in Washington, D. C. This application can be submitted Elektronik Lee through the website, which is copyright dot gov. You can also submit a paper application if you prefer to do it that way. But there are some benefits to doing the application online. For one, it's cheaper. You're probably use lower to its faster. Three. The status of your application can be tracked online and four you can pay using a credit card, which isn't available. If you're doing a paper filing, these are the three things you're gonna need to register. You need the application form. You need a nonrefundable application fee and a deposit, which is a copy of the work that's being registered. Those copies are retained by the Copyright Office, so don't expect those to be returned to you. You have the option submitting the copy Elektronik Lee and the site provides a list of the different file types that are accepted, which you can see here As faras fees go, you can do an online registration of a single work by one author for $45 with prices varying depending on the type of work. If it's a work for hire, etcetera, you can find all the information on the copyright dot gov website. Once you have registered your copyright, it provides a public record of a copyright claim, as well as key facts about the ownership of the work, including the title of the work, the author, the name and address of the claimant copyright owner, the Your creation info about whether or not the work is published. And if it includes pre existing materials, it's ever so. I just wanted to touch on this actual registration process and the things you're going to need, because I want you to actually go to that website. I want you to go to copyright dug up and go through the process of registering a work. If you don't actually want to register it, at least sign up or click around. You can visit. They have frequently asked questions. They have a bunch of information there. You can look at their feet schedule and see what specifically you are in for depending on what type of work you created. And I'm just hoping has taste the intimidation out of the process. Once you see it, you'll see that it's really accessible and register. Your copyright is really beneficial, so I want you to be able to do it without the intimidation. Great. So in her last section, we're going to talk about mine hot tips which, as you know, are kind of just a rundown of some really practical tips that you can use some pointers and some things I want you to be aware of. So I'll see you over there in the next section, and we will do our hot tips. 10. HOT TIPS!!!: you made it to the very last lesson of our copyright course. So here are my top four copyright tips. Number one. Always display a copyright notice on your work if it's possible. As you know, there are definitely some really good reasons to display the copyright notice, as we discussed before. But I wanted to really drive home this point in another way. So as we talked about the statutory damages for a well, whole infringement on a work can go up to as high as $150,000. But what I didn't mention was that it can also be lowered down to $200 per infringement for work if that infringement is an innocent in friction. So what is an innocent infringement? That means that they are saying they infringed upon the work by accident. They didn't know that it was covered by copyright. And how are they gonna claim this? They're going to say that there was no notice on the on the work, so they didn't know there was no copyright notice. So we want to avoid this, and this is a really good reason to always display the copyright notice whenever you can now. Hot tip number two. This one is probably pretty obvious. But just to make sure we're really clear on this, you want to register your copyright. Now, I know these registrations can add up. So what I want you to do is kind of do a cost benefit analysis. When it comes to what works you want to register with the office, perhaps you could base it on something like what type of work is more commonly infringed upon? Or how easy is it for so much one fringe upon that work. So I want you to do this benefit analysis to figure out what is your priority of the pieces that need to be registered sooner. And what can you wait a little bit longer on? So similarly is hot tip number three, which is in reference to registering your blob copy. Right. In this case, I'm not talking about necessarily only a block, but maybe even your website or anything that's kind of being updated or added onto regularly. As you know, copyrights don't protect future works or ideas. So when you register your blonde, you are cooperating everything that's already been published. Now, if you're gonna be updating and adding on to it regularly. You're gonna want to continue to reregister that block to make sure that everything is protected. Now, how often you have to do this is going to depend on how often you're adding onto that block again. This is an analysis that you're gonna have to do to fit your budget and your needs for your business. So hot tip number four be vigilant. No one else is gonna police the Internet or social media except for you. You need to be looking out for your own copyrights. And once those infringements occur, you need to acts quick. So the first thing you're gonna want to do is to reach out to them and say, Hey, heads up. That is copyright protected. I own that copyright. Please take it down. Or please. You know, whatever you want to, please give me credit. However you wanna handle it. Fine. The next step is you're gonna want to send out a cease and desist letter, which this is probably the time you're going to want to involve an attorney. Even if you're hand on the communication. Maybe just have an attorney. You can consult or if you want to, just give it to them and say, Handle this Sometimes it's like a lot more effective to have come from an actual attorney with that esquire through into their name. But either way, you need to be watching out for infringements, and you need to be handling them as they arise. You can't just let them slide and expected deal with that later. So that is our understanding. Copyrights. Course. I had hoped that you got some really good information from this and that. Maybe you're a little less intimidated by the process. I hope you can see the benefits of registering your coffee rights and putting that copyright notice on your works. I hope that you can actually make some money off of these assets. These are things that you want to really protect, their really important part of your business. I hope that you can come join us in another legal guides for creatives course in the near future, we're putting them out pretty regularly now. You can go back and watch our courses on contracts, understanding contracts, reading contracts. If you have any questions on anything, please reach out to me You can reach me by email. You can find us on Instagram at straight and bird. You can also visit our website Where we have a blogger with lots of free legal resource is however you want to do it. I'm here and I will help as much as I can. So I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope to see you in another course very soon.